From the Director…   
I am delighted to welcome David Fleishman, as our Project Coordinator for an important city-wide initiative that will have direct impact on the quality of child care in San Francisco. The Institute is taking a lead role, joining other major City agencies in this  work. Our initial efforts will be to assess for baseline data, provide technical assistance for childcare centers to improve and most importantly, to collect data, identify trends and develop and disseminate policy that will improve children’s development potential.

The Partners in Quality Child-Care Initiative is an effort to improve the quality of child-care and the professional skills, knowledge and career path for child-care professionals.   San Francisco State University, through the Marian Wright Edelman Institute, is collaborating with the Department of Human Services, Department of Children, Youth and Families, San Francisco CARES, Children’s Council, Starting Points, and City College of San Francisco to improve quality in child care centers and family daycare sites. Our project coordinator, David Fleishman has been working with 8 Assessors, experienced in early child development, and trained on the nationally reliable Harms Environmental Scales, to begin to schedule evaluations of over 200 classrooms and 100 family daycare sites in San Francisco. This first phase will provide baseline data on variables that effect quality care. After assessing each center or family site the assessor will develop a Quality Improvement Plan, work with center staff to finalize the plan and then provide direct Technical Assistance to the centers through onsite consultation or appropriate referrals to other community agencies or resources. 

Prior to the assessment process, and to prepare staff in the centers and family daycare sites, City College of San Francisco developed and implemented classes for childcare providers on how to initiate a self-assessment using the Harms Scale in their own centers.

The Marian Wright Edelman Institute will be contracting with The Public Research Institute at San Francisco State University to analyze the data from the assessment process and with La France Associates to manage the database system, which will eventually coordinate databases from other city agencies – all related to child care centers.

We are very excited about the opportunity for collaboration with direct service providers, the research component and the potential for policy directives that will result from the process. 

Best wishes for a healthy, happy, productive semester. 

CAD Connections – January 2003  
By Rene F. Dahl, Ph.D.  
Coordinator - Child and Adolescent Development Program

Happy New Year with much hope for a caring and supportive world for all children, young people, and their families.  For students who are reading this article, best wishes to you for a successful spring semester. 

Staffing Changes
Ms. Kelli Harrington-Otero is no longer with the CAD Program.  She has taken a new job at SFSU as the Associate Dean of the College of Extended Learning.  This is a great opportunity for her and we wish her the greatest success.  For CAD students, her departure means that we will be looking for additional help with advising and internship coordination.  Only Prof. Carol Stevenson and I will hold regular office hours during the spring for CAD majors (with the exception of  Dr. Carolyn Chaney who advises students in School Age concentration only).  To schedule an appointment, contact the main office at 338-3564 or mweinst@sfsu.edu.  We will let you know when we have hired a new internship coordinator.  In the meantime, please contact me with your internship questions at rdahl@sfsu.edu. 

Ms. Janet Egiziano has taken over the Pathways Program at Cañada College and will coordinate our courses at CCSF as well.  She is Director of Special Projects at SFSU’s Marian Wright Edelman Institute and has valuable organizational and program management experience. She holds an M.A. from SFSU in Gender Studies (Gender as Cultural Politics). Welcome, Janet! The Pathways Program is designed to pave the way for students at the community colleges to transition smoothly to SFSU, by offering SFSU courses at Canada and CCSF.  Thus, you may have noticed that courses that help you to fulfill core and/or requirements in the concentrations are offered each semester at both campuses (e.g. In spring semester, CFS 421, Children and Stress is being offered at CCSF and is packed with students and PSY 432 is being offered at Cañada College and has a waiting list).

Faculty Intern Supervisors for Spring 2003   
This semester we are lucky to have Ms.Elaine Schilling continue as a faculty intern supervisor for CAD 601.  She supervised interns last semester, so her experience will be a great help to us.  She comes to us with many years of professional experience in the public sector, private (banking) sector, and higher education, and has an M.P.A. from Notre Dame de Namur University.  Ms. Schilling was the manager of Employee Development and Training at UC Berkeley for seven years.  She also teaches courses here at SFSU in human resources management and supervision at the graduate level, and theory of program planning, as well as master planning at the undergraduate level for the Dept. of Recreation and Leisure Studies.  Welcome back, Elaine.

Melanie Moore is new to the CAD Program this semester and will be teaching one of the CAD 600 sections and CAD 601 as a faculty intern supervisor.  She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University and has experience in program evaluation for agencies and programs that work with children, youth, and their families.  Welcome, Melanie!

CAD Program Growth
One indication of the importance of and need for highly educated and trained professionals to work with children, youth, and their families, is the size of our Spring 2003 internship group.  We have 65 interns representing all four concentrations who are placed at a myriad of agencies such as Starting Points Initiative, Edgewood Center for Children and Families, SFUSD elementary schools, Wu Yee Children’s Services, Family Resource Network, Peninsula Jewish Community Center, Daly City Youth Health Center, Palcare Preschool, Early Childhood Center and the Child Studies Center at SFSU, YMCAs, and the Pacific Leadership Institute.  We are grateful to our community partners for their willingness to work with our students and look forward to positive learning experiences for the CAD majors. 

CAD Student Association  
We had a fun and successful CAD student potluck on December 19, 2002, in SCI 270.  The food was delicious and the candy was even better!!!  We will be sending out a notice (email, flyers) about the next meeting very soon – please join this association and help your fellow students create a supportive and informative CAD community.  Professor Carol Stevenson will be working with this group.

Remember that SCI 270 is available to CAD students as a place to study, each lunch, meet friends, and rest.  We share the room with both History and Anthropology students.  There is also a small computer lab directly across the hall which is available to you.

Check the CAD website and your email!